The Myth of OPSEC

The best thing to remember, is that once a 2nd person knows the secret, it's not a secret any more!

 

Although there is much that could potentially be gleaned from records in the public domain, records that are theoretically protected by privacy legislation, laws and policies; there is much that isn't readily available unless one reveals it publicly (FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, Blogs, and Forums, like, SM even). Sure folk may be able to find where you live / lived at the time you gave out that information, what kind of car you may drive / have driven, even what kind of toothpaste you prefer (you'll probably forever regret winning a tube of denture cement in that colouring in competition that you entered 5 years ago.)

Some information may degrade with time (provided that you don't update the data), and some information is probably not going to be useful or relevant to agents who have particular targets to, well, target.

OPSEC isn't rendered utterly moot by the amount of information potentially gleanable from the public domain, or potentially compromised through misuse, or data theft.

What IS worth protecting with OPSEC are:

Capabilities,
Intentions,
Resources,
Plans,
Relationships with other people / allies,
Assets,
Locations,
Communications networks,
Vulnerabilities,
Intelligence (sources, assessments, information retention and storage)
etc etc etc.

This is information that may not be readily gleaned from your dental records, health benefits claims, or driver's licence records, but may be compromised by indiscriminate voluntary revelation.

Rawles's writing may make for moderately interesting post apocalyptic fantasy fiction, some of his scenarios require far more suspension of disbelief than I'm prepared to concede. In the real world, evangelist Christians may not necessarily be one's friend, and secular humanist atheists, may not necessarily be one's enemy, though in Rawles's fictional world, they readily fall into 'white hat' and 'black hat' categories respectively.

Militias represent a broad spectrum. Some may potentially be beneficial to some communities, but it has to be said....some will inevitably degenerate into gangs of desperados lead by warlords, as harmful to the communities that spawned them, as the communities that they loot, pillage and sack.

 

chelloveck, many years ago in the USAF I had a fairly significant security clearance working in advanced special project. I was only a lowly enlisted man, but I set the frequencies, loaded and unloaded the data collection devices and assisted in the upgrades. etc. When the government got through the security clearance, there is very little that they did not know about. I got home on leave about 6 months after it was issued and my pastor, scout leader, school teachers, neighbors, grand parents, grand parents neighbors, etc all wanted to know if I had got in trouble and that the FBI and military had been talking to them. I was met at least once a year for a couple years after I was discharged and reminded that I was still bound by the security regulations and they seemed to know where to contact me. This was 60 years or so ago and there were no computers etc to keep record, so I imagine that if there is a need, the data collection is even greater.

 

Used to have a neighbor who worked at a local site for the USAF, about twice a year the "officials" would show up and ask questions on his consumption of alcohol, fidelity to mate, his visitors, how much money he appears to have, etc and they are so slick about it that I don't really know just what I was asked. I have a slight idea of what he did and what the site does and I am happy to cooperate in any way I can as I hope it never fails.

 

No matter what you think they know never forget that they can make it all up as they go along and you will still loose.